In the Secession’s main gallery, the American artist R. H. Quaytman has developed a frieze comprising twenty-two paintings on wood panels titled An Evening. Chapter 32. These paintings are placed on two walls that form a forty-five-degree angle. The combined measurements of the two walls equal the length of Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze, which the artist references in various ways for this chapter. Like the architectural plans for several previous exhibitions, this configuration is based on the figure of the open book and reinforces one-point perspective.

In addition to referencing the site of the Secession, Quaytman used two paintings by the Flemish Artist Otto van Veen (1556–1629) as points of departure – The Persian Women and Amazons and Scythians, both in the collections of Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum. After viewing these unusual and germane works in the restoration rooms at the KHM, Quaytman contributed financially to their restoration in exchange for access to photograph and the permission to include The Persian Women in this exhibition. The other painting, Amazons and Scythians, is currently on view in the KHM’s exhibition devoted to van Veen’s student Rubens.